Someone Had A Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dear Faith

Happy Birthday To

You!

Yesterday was the birthday I estimated to be close to Faith's real one. No, I didn't forget it, I just forgot to post it here in time. 

I was tired from my corona virus booster, but made it out of bed to play with her and let her run around in the yard for awhile. 

We played catch with the orange ball in the house and I almost whacked my treasured Royal Copenhagen bowl. It was OK, but after that we celebrated with ice cream after dinner instead of catching balls inside thehouse. 

Happy Birthday, Dear Faith ~ You Are The Best Friend Ever!

Celebrating Azaleas, Belle Mead, N. J.

 

I recently told my friend Annette about the over 500 azalea bushes that grew more or less wild in our garden in the Sourland mountain, outside Princeton, N. J. 

Instead of attaching the photos to an email, I decided to share them on my blog. 

I'm sorry they have faded with time. In real life, the flowers were brilliant.

The azaleas were there when my first husband, Mike, bought the place and they pretty much took care of themselves and thrived. Some plants were more than 6 feet tall. 

Every spring when the azaleas were in bloom, Mike and I threw a huge party. 

Friends came from far and wide, my Swedish girlfriends, my friends from work, Mike's Hungarian friends from all over the East Coast, his colleagues from the university, as well as visisting scientists from the Institute for Advanced Study, they all came to admire the flowers and have a good time. 

In those days, the mid to late 1960s, the scientists were all men who came with their wives. 

Since this was the era of cocktails and punchbowls, everyone had a smashing good time. 

I was fortunate to meet many interesting and brilliant people while being married to Mike.   

Better yet, I met some wonderful women, young women as we were while we lived in Princeton.  

A few of us have remained friends for all of our lives. Annette from Denmark is one of them, Christina in Sweden, another. 

Those lasting friendships are what I value most from the early days of my life in the United States.

Remembering Samson As A Young Dog

I will continue to publish a Samson post every now and then. I miss him so much, it will help me to share.

 

When Samson was young, he had quite the romance going on with a little cockapoo, named Gracie. Since this was a long distance romance, as Gracie lived, well still lives, in Virginia, I got him a toy dog that we named Gracie.

Samson loved his Gracie toy so very much.

All that lovin' took its toll and Gracie got chewed up pretty badly, so she didn't last that long. 

But Samson always made sure I left these comments from him on the real Gracie's mom's blog: 

Gracie:  XXXXXXXXXXXX, Yours, Samson

Remembering Errol. Earth Day, California Poppies & The Great Moose Migration Begins In Sweden

 

Today we celebrate Earth Day. 

I think of my late husband Errol. 

And note the arrival of the California poppies in our town, as well as the beginnning of the Great Migration of the Swedish Moose, as seen on Swedish TV @ svt.se.

I read in the Washington Post that Earth Day may bring some good and long overdue news about providing protection for America's oldest and biggest trees. Everyone was commenting anonymously, so I will leave it at that. Except to say I'm surprised this protection does not already exist. 

Driving through town, I saw poppies in the fields and decided to dedicate some pictures I took many years ago to the memory of my much loved husband, Errol, who passed away on this date, seven years ago.

 

Errol, who always brought me flowers for no special reason. I think he would love to be remembered this way.  

 

Or perhaps to be remembered with a beautiful mountain view. 

I miss you, Errol, but life goes on, as it must. 

So I'm posting this note on my blog and I will think of you with love today. 

I will think of the earth, as well. And the trees, those ancient ones, the ones who live here with me, old also. And all the rest of them. 

I'm becoming more and more interested in trees.

Joshua tree from the year of the poppy superbloom. The orange fields behind are all poppies. It was an amazing experince to see hillsides and fields, upon hillsides and fields, all covered in orange flowers. I will never forget it.

Happy Earth Day!

 

Rust ~ Post No. 37

Three large diesel engines sit in one of my fields down below. Many years ago, a man came and said they belonged to him.  Which was not exactly true since they had been abandoned in our field. But I would have gladly let the man take them away.

However, Errol, who had a difficult time parting with things, said "No."

And now, many years later, the engines are still here, rusting away. This box of stuff is there too. 

The engines are super heavy, so they will still be in my field when I'm gone. 

Not being able to part with things is both sad and very annyoing to me. 

But then I always had enough, while Errol was one of nine children. I know they were not poor and had enough of food and essentials. 

But with that many kids, everything had to be shared and I'm sure there were many things the kids may have wanted but couldn't have. So maybe this need to keep stuff came from that. 

And I shouldn't judge. 

Ooophs, I posted this one yesterday by mistake. First time that ever happened. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Clouds

 

Don't Look Up!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, says my Easter Bunny

I got lovely flower photos from

Annette in Copenhagen

And Jane here in California

Faith 

And I wish you all a 

Happy Easter!

Photo by Jane

Industrial & City Scapes Photography

Lovely as it is to take nature pictures, I also like what I call industrial photos. And cityscapes, like 1940's movies. There are no cityscapes in our town, nor much industry, but there's the Lehigh Cement Plant, right by the road I take when I drive to town.

There's a railroad crossing by the plant. The other day, I was lucky to get stopped by a train. Lucky, so I could take some pictures. 

I think this was an interesting capture because I've never seen this type of railway car before. It looks really old to me. I don't know for sure, but I like that I got a chance to take its picture. 

A bit more of a modern version, but this one still looks old. I imagine most freight trains run until they can run no more. 

Not much graffiti on this train, but the entire side of this car made up for it.

This is what I would love to do more of.  A man in a yellow safety vest walking against the backdrop of the huge plant.

I would have to use my camera, of course. It's gathering dust in a drawer now. I only use my phone.

Capturing moments like this would be so much fun.

Memories ~ The Rocky Mountains

One more post about how I fell in love with the American West. I wrote more about this in the A - Z Challenge of 2013, posted in  Pages above. 

While in the Rocky Mountains, my friend Bill and I spent a day in Leadville. Situated at over 10,000 feet, Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States. 

I don't remember anything about Leadville, but was pleased to rediscover the city in Wallace Stegner's marvellous and Pulitzer Prize winning book, Angle of Repose. The best book I've read about the Western frontier. Actually, one of the best books, period, that I've ever read. 

My friend Bill was in his 60s, married to a friend of mine, Anne. His work frequently took him on business trips to New Mexico, so while there, he offered to take me on this journey across the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. 

We also stopped in Central City to see the city's famous Opera House. Bill and I were both opera fans, as was my soon to be ex who just happened to have an opera quality bass/baritone voice. With which he was always asked to delight fellow guests at the oh, so frequent Princeton dinner parties. 

I could write an entire post, if not a book, about the dinner parties of Princeton, N. J. back in the mid to late 1960s. 

As we approached Denver, we stopped at Red Rocks park, a stunning place, I actually still remember. 

In Denver, I caught a Greyhound Bus that would take me to Salt Lake City, where I would change to a bus headed to Idaho Falls. 

After seeing me off, Bill would take a plane back home to Princeton. 

And thus begun my real adventures in the American West and my life as a grownup woman, responsible for myself. 

Independence, indeed. 

Thanks to my friend Jane for noting the serendipitous connection between Indpendence Pass and my own independence, which may well have started anew right there. 

Sunday Morning Reflections ~ War

 

War

I saw a child torn and bleeding

I weep for him 

it's so wrong to see a child in a war

suffering from what man has started

The child looked around

I could see fear, pain

and a questionmark on his face

He wants to know why

caught in-between a grownup's war

  B.Coates, USMC Vietnam ca.1969

Where Did All The $$$ Go And More

 

A while back, my toilet got unmentionably and horribly stopped up. After it cost me a couple of hundred dollars to get that fixed, I decided I'd had enough and bought a new fabulous toilet.

Then it cost me $230.00 to have a dude come from Home Depot to install it. 

But: 

I'm in love with my toilet! 

Best of all it has what's called "comfortable" height.

Since I updated my toilet, I decided it would be a good time to have my septic tank cleaned out. We last had that done in 2012, so ten years seemed perfect. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've always been good with piles, getting rid of paperwork, and so on. 

No more.

I needed INSPIRATION!

I had an old two-drawer file cabinet, rusty on top, with inserts to hang files on, for some reason crooked. I think I got both them and the cabinet second hand years ago. 

Looking at the stuff, I decided a new 2-drawer file cabinet would be just the thing to inspire me. 

This is what I got:

I'm so glad I got a black one, it looks really good next to my computer table's black legs and frame. 

And now I'm in love with it too!

And please don't ask about the handcuff, in case you noticed it. I inherited the table from my father-in-law's office. And it came with the handcuff attached!

I'm also happy that I unpacked the cabinet, moved it into my second bedroom, and screwed in the handles all by myself. I've been relying on Mark so much, I was beginning to feel sort of helpless. And decided to put a stop to that. All Mark did was to take the old file cabinet to the dump. 

I put the files on the bed in my other bedroom/office and I'm now going through them. They will be emptied of a lot of papers I no longer want or need. And then put into my new file cabinet. 

I'm so happy I started this project and will be even more so once it's finished.  

In one file folder, I found two precious photos, one of Samson as a puppy, one of Errol unloading some Italian tile from his pickup truck. Errol was working hard and not happy to have his picture taken, but Samson was so cute, I had to frame him.

Wasn't he just the cutest puppy?

Now, there's only one more thing I want/need. A single shelf for plants to put next to my dining area window. Which is large and gets the morning sun.

I have these three plants sitting on my dining table, which is OK, since I'm not exactly known for my dinner parties.  But now that I'm learning about orchids, I want to buy at least one more and some other plants as well.

The spider plant sits in the living room on an antique stand with a deep drawer and shelf below. I decided the drawer would be perfect for my tools, and it has been. And the plant fits well above it. 

And after spending money on both fun and much needed stuff, a crown came loose in my mouth. 

So next week I will have a rootcanal done and a post inserted for the new crown. Fortunately, I don't have to pay for the crown. I believe because had they put the crown on a post to begin with, it would have stayed on. 

It makes me feel good that my dentist is not only a really cool guy, but also a fair one.

And I have dental insurance, so $300 for the rootcanal and post. 

Without insurance it would have been $600 or more. 

Thank you dear University of California for all your great benefits.

Rockin' Dog Faith

The weather has been so nice lately that it's getting more difficult to want to go inside after we come back from our walk. I have this big rock in my yard, a perfect place to sit awhile.

So I did that, thinking I would enjoy the nice outside a bit longer. But Faith had other plans. For some reason, me sitting on a rock was the funniest thing she'd ever seen in her life. 

She jumped up on the rock, tried to climb into my lap, while almost pushing me off the rock. Then she'd jump down, run to the front door, run back at a great speed and up on the rock she'd jump. Then she'd start licking my cheek. She's never licked my face while inside the house or anywhere else before.

She was having so much fun on that rock, I make a point of sitting on it often now, so we can have some playtime. 

This girl is my very best friend ever. I love her so and she loves me right back. 

Walking

I went out early on April 1, the weather was so gorgeous, I wanted to break out into Oh, what a beautiful morning! Since I can't sing, that would have scared some critters away, for sure.

I followed this fence.

One view as I walked.

As I walked uphill, my walk turned into the beginning of a hike and I felt really good. A bit less good as I noticed all this barbed wire wrapped around the remnant of a cut down juniper tree. I wondered who would come up here and cut down a juniper? And wrap it in some left over fencing, or old fencing being taken down. 

But still, junipers won't give up so easily. See the little tree at the end? There's just one long limb left of the original tree and it's on the ground, but this part of the tree survives. And in an exceptional drought, no less. 

Another view.

And one more. My pictures would be better, I imagine, if I used my camera, but the phone is so light and easy to use. And I need it with me for security anyway. 

Faith in the shade. Her vet came to visit us the other evening to give her the rattlesnake and kennel cough vaccines. She was happy visiting, but she's no dummy. As soon as he took out the needle and the rest, Faith jumped up in my lap as I sat on the couch. 

When I told her she should be a good girl because this nice doctor has come all this way to see you. The vet said, "and you," meaning me. He came after work to to make my life easier. It's a long drive. I'm so grateful for such kindness. I'm tearing up and all I can do, is say thank you and be amazed at the kindness of people.

Another view from my walk that almost became a hike. At least I walked uphill quite a bit. Maybe I'm getting a bit stronger after all. 

And the weather, so glorious first thing in the morning.